Increased in vivo production of tumor necrosis factor after development of diabetes in nontreated, long-term diabetic BB rats.

We have recently reported that chronic and systemic administration of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) inhibits development of autoimmune diabetes in NOD mice and BB rats, animal models of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). During these experiments, we unexpectedly found that in vivo production of TNF stimulated by a single injection of lipopolysaccharide was enhanced approximately 10 times in the long-term diabetic BB rats (P less than 0.0001), whose mean duration of diabetes with more than 16.8 mM (300 mg/dl) of nonfasting blood glucose level was 26.2 +/- 2.1 days, as compared to that in the rats of nondiabetes and in the rats at the onset of diabetes, whose mean duration of diabetes was 1.4 +/- 0.6 days. The long-term diabetic, but not short-term-diabetic, rats were also associated with increased levels of serum fructosamine/albumin (P less than 0.01) and triglyceride (P less than 0.01) and with a decreased level of serum albumin (P less than 0.01). The in vivo TNF productivity in the diabetic rats, including the short-term- and long-term-diabetic rats, was correlated positively with the level of fructosamine/albumin (P less than 0.05) and negatively with the level of serum albumin (P less than 0.05), but not with levels of blood glucose. None of these correlations were observed in nondiabetic rats. The increased LPS-induced serum TNF activity in the long-term diabetic state was observed not only in BB rats but also in NOD mice and GK rats, a model of non-IDDM, irrespective of sexes and ages, indicating that the enhancement of in vivo TNF production was a result of long-term diabetes. These findings indicate that some factor(s) associated with the long-term-diabetic state may prime macrophages in vivo to produce TNF. Further study is needed to reveal a mechanism of the enhanced TNF production and its possible relevance to various abnormalities associated with the chronic hyperglycemic state.